Use of electronic program guides (EPGs) is ubiquitous nowadays to manage, identify and select programming content on many program channels made available by cable television (TV) networks. EPGs are also provided by personal video recorders (PVRs), also known as digital video recorders (DVRs), e.g., TiVo and ReplayTV devices, for users to conveniently select programming content to record, without having to set a timer. However, the user's ability to accurately record a broadcast program is contingent upon the accuracy of the broadcast start and end times of the program prescribed by EPG data (hereinafter “EPG start and end times”). In instances where the actual broadcast start or end time of a program is different than the EPG start or end time, the PVR often records programming content that the user did not want, or the PVR fails to record all of the programming content that the user intended to record.
The actual start and end times for a given broadcast program may be different than the EPG start and end times for various reasons. For example, suppose a baseball game is scheduled to broadcast on a given evening from 7:30 PM to 10:30 PM, but because of extra innings or a rain delay, the game continues until 11:15 PM. Although the actual time of the game is from 7:30 PM to 11:15 PM, the start and end times listed and provided by the EPG will be 7:30 PM and 10:30 PM, respectively. Accordingly, if a user selects to record the baseball game using the EPG in this instance, the user would miss the last 45 minutes of the game (i.e., from 10:30 PM to 11:15 PM). Other examples include a Presidential Address or an awards ceremony which lasts for a time that is longer than that the program has been scheduled. Technical difficulties causing the content provider to broadcast a program at a time other than that which is scheduled may cause such a variance as well.
In addition, when the time of one program provided on a specific channel is off schedule, subsequent programs provided by the channel may also be affected, unless the scheduled programming content is manipulated (e.g., certain show or commercial segments are skipped and therefore not broadcast). Thus, if a user records through an EPG a particular show which was scheduled to broadcast from 11:00 PM-11:30 PM, but it actually broadcast from 11:15 PM to 11:45 PM because of a prolonged baseball game, the user would not record the desired programming content. Instead, in this instance, the user's PVR would record the last fifteen minutes of the baseball game and only the first fifteen (out of thirty) minutes of that particular show.